Hakeem Nicks revealed this past Thursday that he has a strained abdominal muscle that has been bothering him for some time. But, when asked if it was bad enough to keep him out of Sunday’s game against the Cowboys, Nicks gave a “you got to be kidding look’’ and said “No, cmon man, it’s Dallas, man.’’

Well, yes, it is Dallas but no man, Nicks will not be out there for the Giants. He is one of the seven inactives, completing a steep health plummet for Nicks, who initially did not seem to think the injury was severe enough to keep him out.

Second-year Rueben Randle started in place of Nicks. Randle came into the game with a team-leading six touchdown catches.

Nicks was able to practice Thursday and Friday on a limited basis but he never even came out to the field on Sunday for pregame warmups. He said during the week that he had been playing with the abdominal strain – the Giants at first called it a groin injury – and also revealed that “I was advised by my agent to just get it checked up a little bit so that’s what we did. Make sure everything was good, got good feedback, everything was fine.’’

Apparently, everything is not fine and Nicks will miss his first game of the season, continuing what has been a dismal contract year. Nicks has 42 receptions for 620 yards but has no touchdowns and has not looked like himself the entire season. In last week’s 27-13 victory over the Packers, Nicks took himself off the field and his replacement on one play, Louis Murphy, Jr., ran the wrong route on his only offensive snap to cause Eli Manning’s only interception. Nicks looked agitated and upset on the bench and teammate Brandon Jacobs admitted he gave Nicks a pep talk.

Nicks this past week said his show of emotion was based on his competitive fire and not anything else. “I’m not frustrated,’’ Nicks said. “All that stuff they’re saying about me wanting to be frustrated and all that, that’s not my character, that’s not me. I’m a team player, I know my role, I play it well and that’s that. I’m always gonna go out there and play hard, compete and play the game the way I’ve been playing it. Frustrated ain’t the case at all. Competitive is completely separate from being frustrated, in my eyes anyway.’’